PM says ‘nothing light’ about NSW lockdown after Andrews calls for Sydney ‘ring of steel’

Prime Minister Scott Morrison says NSW vaccine centres will look to extend the time between vaccine shots in order get first doses to people as soon as possible, but noted the move wouldn’t affect the allocation of shots to other states.

Speaking on Friday after a meeting of national cabinet, Mr Morrison said authorities would seek to extend the time between first and second Pfizer doses from three to six weeks in NSW clinics, a move that is in keeping with existing advice.

Mr Morrison also said there was widespread agreement about the need to continue to “lean into AstraZeneca, particularly in NSW”.

However, he emphasised the health authorities were “not going to disrupt the vaccination program around the rest of the country”.

The comments came after Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews called for a “ring of steel” around Sydney earlier on Friday, saying the COVID-19 cases needed to be contained in NSW for the good of the nation.

When asked about Mr Andrews’ comments, the Prime Minister said, “the only view that matters on this is the view of the NSW Premier, because they are responsible for how they manage the lockdown in NSW”.

He said lockdowns were “the most important factor in arresting the growth” of cases and that NSW did appear to be preventing the exponential growth seen elsewhere in the world.

“There is nothing light about the lockdown in Sydney, I can assure you. My family are in it,” he said.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian called the outbreak in her state a “national emergency” on Friday morning after the state recorded 136 new local infections and suggested other states should send vaccine doses to NSW.

Mr Morrison said he had been treating COVID-19 as an emergency since the start of 2020.

“That hasn’t changed in that entirety of the time we have been managing this pandemic. Lives and livelihoods have been at stake right across the country during this entire period,” he said.

Mr Andrews said it was appropriate to treat the growing NSW outbreak as a national issue but that meant “they needed to treat it like a national problem”.

“I want to just make this point that if there is a national emergency – and I’m not doubting that for a moment in Sydney – then it is a national responsibility that Sydneysiders are locked into Sydney,” he said.

“We need a ring of steel around Sydney, so that this virus is not spreading into other parts of our nation. We did it last year to protect country Victoria, and our country. The same must occur in relation to Sydney, and that’s what I’ll be asking for at national cabinet.”

Mr Andrews also signalled he would oppose vaccines that had been allocated to Victoria being shifted to NSW after Ms Berejiklian raised the prospect at her media conference and argued her state had done the nation’s “heavy lifting” earlier in the pandemic.

“I doubt very much that we’re going to see, you know, large amounts of vaccine that had been allocated to us being relocated to others,” he said.

“It’s not my job to get the pubs open in NSW. So I’m not going to have Victorian vaccine go to NSW so that they can be open, while we’re closed. That doesn’t make any sense to me.

“We have barely enough vaccine allocated to any of us so the notion we would be sending it away from here - we all have got need, all of us.

“They have been allocated fairly and there is additional supply, I am not opposed to NSW receiving more, and in fact they have received more in the most recent bring-forward because of the difficult circumstances they face.”

Ms Berejiklian said earlier on Friday that national cabinet should also discuss whether other states should send some of their Pfizer doses to NSW.

“We need to have a strategy at national cabinet that does think about the options for getting more jabs in arms in Sydney,” Ms Berejiklian said.

“Dr Chant advised us that it is a national emergency, advice also included having a rethink of the national vaccination strategy.

“We have been doing the heavy lifting for 18 months and to be at bay, we have tried to make sure that we keep the economy going, and we want to continue to do that, but in order for us to have our citizens live freely and openly, as well as other states to ensure that their citizens live openly and freely, we need to have a national refocus.”

Overnight, Australia’s medical regulator approved the use of COVID-19 vaccines for children aged 12 to 16 overnight.

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